Inventor. She was a pioneering figure in the development of computer software. Born Betty Jean Jennings, she was raised on a farm in Missouri and attended Northwest Missouri State Teachers College (now Northwest Missouri State University), where she majored in Mathematics. Following her graduation in 1946, she was hired by the University of Pennsylvania for the purpose of working on military projects. She was chosen to be included with a selected group of women to work on the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (better known as the ENIAC), for which its development was to determine mathematically ballistics trajectories. This would prove to be a historic accomplishment in the evolution of computers, as it was recognized as the first all-electronic digital computer. Bartik was vital in devising a way of retaining the information of the ENIAC onto a stored program computer. She later helped program the BINAC computer and developed an electronic memory backup system for the UNIVAC computer. In 1951 she left the computer industry to raise her family and would return in 1967 remaining in the field until 1985, as she served at various capacities including programmer and technical publisher. In addition, she served as editor with the early high-tech Auerbach Publishers. Her vast accomplishments were overlooked until the latter part of her life, as she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 1997 and was recipient of the Fellow Award from the Computer History Museum in 2008. She died from congestive heart failure.
Inventor. She was a pioneering figure in the development of computer software. Born Betty Jean Jennings, she was raised on a farm in Missouri and attended Northwest Missouri State Teachers College (now Northwest Missouri State University), where she majored in Mathematics. Following her graduation in 1946, she was hired by the University of Pennsylvania for the purpose of working on military projects. She was chosen to be included with a selected group of women to work on the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (better known as the ENIAC), for which its development was to determine mathematically ballistics trajectories. This would prove to be a historic accomplishment in the evolution of computers, as it was recognized as the first all-electronic digital computer. Bartik was vital in devising a way of retaining the information of the ENIAC onto a stored program computer. She later helped program the BINAC computer and developed an electronic memory backup system for the UNIVAC computer. In 1951 she left the computer industry to raise her family and would return in 1967 remaining in the field until 1985, as she served at various capacities including programmer and technical publisher. In addition, she served as editor with the early high-tech Auerbach Publishers. Her vast accomplishments were overlooked until the latter part of her life, as she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 1997 and was recipient of the Fellow Award from the Computer History Museum in 2008. She died from congestive heart failure.
Bio by: C.S.
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